SEN 3177
- National Cup Scoring
- 2023 FAI Arizona FF Champs Report
National Cup Scoring
By Bob Hanford
After a previous phone conversation with Aram, I saw his description of the NC scoring system in the last SEN and felt that a response was necessary, as his description was not entirely correct. The NC system is modeled after the original America’s Cup system, awarding points to top five finishers in events. The AC system had a base score of 25 points for first place, with the following places receiving points descending in five-point increments, and with bonus points awarded to all places for more than five fliers.
The NC system begins with a base of 20 points, with a point added for each flier, again with the next four places receiving five points less for each place. Single fliers receive 21 points. Two fliers get 22/17. Three get 23/18/13, and so on. So with five fliers, first through fifth would be 25/20/15/10/5 which was identical to the AC point awards for five fliers. Points descend in five-point increments, not one.
The 90% figure was misunderstood in our phone conversation to be that for the number of single scores. After reviewing all of this year’s reported scores, about 90% of the reported scores were in events that had less than five fliers—they were not single scores. About 40% were in fact single scores, 68% had at least two fliers, 80% had at least three fliers, and 11% had five or more fliers.
The AC scoring system has recently been revised to just two-point increments between the places rather than five, but still with the 25 point base. I presume this is to create less of a point discrepancy between placings when the actual top five flight scores are often very close.
With a wealth of data available to me from this and past years, I will be investigating possible revisions to the NC scoring system, but it will be changes on my end, not one that creates an additional burden on the CD’s who report the scores. The CD’s across the country have become familiar with what is required, and have been both prompt and diligent in their reporting. The past two years have been the best since I took over administrative duties more than a decade ago.
One possible change I will be considering is reducing the base score for fewer participants, possibly 10 for single fliers, 15 for two, and the existing 20 for three or more. Any changes that are implemented will be gradual rather than drastic and will rely upon the same reporting process from the CD’s of approximately 90 National Cup contests across the country. You CD’s are doing a great job!
2023 FAI Arizona FF Champs Report (incl. 10 min. F1A fly-off))
The weather forecast for the contest had not been good. The coming rain and the unusual cool temperatures probably kept some California fliers from coming to Eloy. It then rained on the field during Thursday night. On Friday the field surface was dry, good for practicing and retrieving.
Saturday was sunny with clouds and temperatures from 40° to 65°F and winds mostly out of SE at 1-6 MPH. Nobody flew F1C/P or F1Q. We had only 2 F1B fliers with Ron Felix, all the way from Pennsylvania, maxing out the 5 rounds and Californian Daryl Perkins with one drop in 2nd place. In F1A we had 6 fliers of which 4 maxed out. The fly-off then was later in the day from the N side of the field. In the 6 minute fly-off Jim Farmer dropped out. Then in the 8 minute fly-off Brian VanNest’s model stalled and made close to 5 minutes. The 10 minute fly-off after 5pm was very exciting. There was now not much wind out of the N. Enes Pecenkovic with his open structure hybrid glider launched first to a height of 90.5m. It flew medium circles and came down relatively fast. Andrew Barron then launched his all carbon, black glider higher. It flew large circles and went downwind and landed after six minutes and 14 seconds. Enes’ model after 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) had come down to about 50m and had moved upwind. For the next 7.5 minutes (450 seconds) it stayed above the timers at a height between 50 to 40m and even coming down to 30m, circling going to the left and circling going to the right. It dt’ed at a height of 42.5m with a total flight time of 10 minutes (600 seconds) – landing just a bit further upwind then from where Enes had launched. An amazing flight.
Sunday was cloudy with some sun and temperatures from 40° to 70°F and winds mostly out of ESE at 2-6 MPH. There were no competitors in F1H. Peter Brocks won F1G and Daryl Perkins maxed out in F1J for 1st place. In F1S we had 5 fliers of which 3 maxed out. In the first fly-off Jack Murphy dt’ed early and placed 3rd. In the second fly-off George Morris did not make the required 180 seconds for 2nd place. In the third fly-off Allan Mecham tried going for the record but missed and was the winner in F1S.
The 2023 FAI Arizona Champs was a good contest with perfect weather and a beautiful orange and pink sky each evening after sunset.
Peter Brocks, CD
RESULTS 2023 ARIZONA FAI CHAMPIONSHIPS
2023 ARIZONA CHAMPIONSHIPS, ELOY, ARIZONA, DEC. 2,3
Peter Brocks, CD
F1A 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O Total
1 Enes Pecenkovic 180 180 180 180 180 360 480 600 2340
2 Andrew Barron 180 180 180 180 360 480 374 2114
3 Brian VanNest 180 180 180 180 180 360 287 1547
4 Jim Farmer 180 180 180 180 180 141 1041
5 Peter Brocks 180 180 180 180 45 765
6 Peter Allnut 180 105 180 173 0 638
F1B 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1 Ron Felix 180 180 180 180 180 900
2 Daryl Perkins 180 189 180 121 180 841
F1G 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1 Peter Brocks 118 120 99 120 99 556
F1J 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1 Daryl Perkins 120 120 120 120 120 600
F1S 1 2 3 4 5 F/O F/O F/O Total
1 Allan Mecham 120 120 120 120 120 120 180 138 1038
2 George Morris 120 120 120 120 120 120 102 822
3 Jack Murphy 120 120 120 120 120 46 646
4 Charlie Morris 44 120 120 120 120 524
5 Janna VanNest 46 120 115 DNF DNF 283
NO FLIERS IN F1C/P, F1Q AND F1H